Happy NFL Draft Day

ESPN does many things well and some things poorly. I’m a positive guy at least 50.1% of the time and since it is NFL Draft Day I’m choosing to lean toward my majority side and will focus on the positives that ESPN has brought us these last few weeks leading up to the NFL Draft. In addition to game coverage, game presentation, and highlight shows, ESPN is wonderful at bringing us “behind the scenes” programming and “expert” programming and those qualities were out in full force with the Gruden QB Camps, Three for the Show, and Bill Parcells Draft (Bill Parcells Confidential) show.

First, the Gruden QB Camp episodes have been awesome, as I’ve said before. I would personally like to see the entire four-hour meetings that the prospective NFL QBs had with him rather than the edited 30 minute version, but I’ll take what I can get.

Second, the Three for the Show three-part documentary on Jake Locker, Cam Newton, and Tyrod Taylor is outstanding. The access that these filmmakers got is unreal. They’re in the locker rooms, in the homes, at meetings with agents (although we haven’t seen Newton’s agent yet, just his dad and his QB coach, interesting). It’s always interesting to see behind the curtain even if the subjects are aware of the camera it’s clear that they are being themselves, no more so than when Cam Newton left his interview session at the Combine and when his QB coach reacted to Newton’s (poor) throws at the Combine. You could tell that they wish some of that footage wasn’t captured, but it was and it’s awesome to watch. Behind the scenes stuff is always really interesting in football because the sport is so insular and because we rarely see these guys without their helmets on. I’ve found the Tyrod Taylor stuff to be fascinating. I had no idea he was the kind of guy that he appears to be, which is unbelievably humble, polite, and for lack of a better word, normal. It’s hard to not root for a guy like him to succeed, not just because he seems like a nice guy, but because he’s done some pretty impressive things while at Virginia Tech. Maybe Philly should just draft him to back up Michael Vick if (when?) he gets injured so that they don’t have to change a thing about their offense. By the way, I loved the session that Taylor and Vick had at the end of episode two. Vick harped and harped and harped on Taylor, but it looked like Taylor processed what Vick said. Pretty cool to see. Also, it was really cool to see them in the film room when Taylor drew up a play and asked Vick if they had it at Virginia Tech when he was there. Vick came across as extremely self-effacing when he sort of laughed and joked that they didn’t have any of that when he was there; the message being that it was far too complicated and they ran a very, very, very simple offense when Vick was running the show in Blacksburg. Funny stuff.

As for Newton, it’s clear to me that he’s a complicated guy. He’s unabashedly humble at times and then eye-rollingly arrogant at others. He does have a bit of a victim mentality to him that, to be fair, was cultivated over this last year. I know that his dad did some ill stuff regarding his recruitment, but how happy would you be if everyone questioned what kind of person you are and dumped dirt on your dad (a guy you love and respect) constantly? If it was me, I’d be pissed and would probably act like a jerk to everyone. It appears that Newton’s biggest personality quirk is that he seems disingenuous to some and that may be because he’s trying to put on a good face and show that the criticism is not getting to him. I gotta say, I respect that.

Locker is coming off really well in the show and that’s a surprise to no one. He seems just about as down-to-earth as he’s been portrayed, which, I suppose, shouldn’t be a surprise. What did surprise me was that he dropped an emeffer in the locker room before the Holiday Bowl when he was getting his team pumped up. I didn’t know he had that in him and I’m pleased to see it. I’m still bothered by the sequence in the Holiday Bowl when his helmet was pushed over his eyes and that the medical staff never evaluated him for a concussion. Look, he was freakin’ kneed in the head and he as panicked on the ground because he didn’t think he could see. Now that was clearly the helmet thing, but to not even test him and let it go by? I’m sure they had their reasons, but man, it sure seemed irresponsible—but then I’m not a doctor (although my good friend, Josh is and said that the UW staff should be ashamed of themselves, so take that however you want to).

Third, the Bill Parcells draft show was incredible. I’ve always had a soft spot for Parcells because my dad is a Giants fan and when I lived overseas for four years (1985-1989) we only got the national of national teams broadcast to us. That meant we saw a lot of San Francisco, a lot of Dallas, a lot of Pittsburgh, a lot of Green Bay, a lot of Chicago, and yes, a lot of the New York Giants. I loved those Parcells Super Bowl teams and thought he was the greatest. Then he left New York, dyed his hair and started to get fatter and I didn’t care much for him anymore. Regardless, I admire the guy’s mind and this show allowed us access to it on a topic that absolutely fascinates me. I took the liberty of duplicating Parcells’ draft board as best as I could, trying to pay attention to the subtleties of where he had a guy slotted in each particular round across position groups, but it’s difficult to do because I couldn’t see the whole board at once (both defense and offense). But just to give you an idea he has Andy Dalton rated as a third-rounder (which is where most people thought that he’d be at the beginning of this process and it’s only been lately that he’s climbed into first-round contention) and he has Miami’s WR Leonard Hankerson rated as a third rounder, but he has Hankerson “above” Dalton on his board, which means he values Hankerson more than Dalton even though they have the same third-round grade.

I think I was able to capture all of the names (HD and the DVR are truly incredible), but I may have missed a few here and there as either Mike Tirico or Parcells blocked part of the board when I tried to make out then names. They also simply misspelled some names, such as Nebraska WR Niles Paul and Oregon State DT Stephen Paea. On Parcells’ board those guys are listed as “Paul Nilas” and “Steven Paea,” which is something my mother-in-law would do to a name (two examples: I worked at two companies back in the day, Starwave and Atom Films, my mother-in-law would insist on calling them “Starwaves” and “Adam’s Film”).

Parcells has only 124 players on his board and doesn’t have any graded out as 6th or 7th rounders (unless I read his board wrong, which is possible). Here is the board as best as I could replicate it. I just listed the position groups as he has them on his board, the order that the position groups are listed are not the order in which he values the players. However, the order within each position group is the order in which Parcells has them ranked:

First Rounders:

WR
A.J. Green, Georgia
Julio Jones, Alabama

QBs
Cam Newton, Auburn
Blaine Gabbert, Missouri

–no surprises here.

RB
Mark Ingram, Alabama

–no surprises here

TE/FB
Kyle Rudolph, Notre Dame

–talentwise I can see why he’d grade Rudolph here, but the injury thing may hold him back.

–earlier on in the process I wouldn’t say this is surprising, but Solder is not a guy that we’ve heard of lately that is at the top of the OT class. Regardless, the names aren’t surprising except for the absence of one guy who we’ll get to much later.

–I guess the surprise is that he’s got Kerrigan listed as an OLB and not a DE (at 267 lbs). I know that he projects to possibly play as a 34 OLB, but is that the best fit for him?

ILB
Nate Irving, NC State

–big surprise here. I haven’t seen this guy listed anywhere as a first rounder and certainly not high in the first round where Parcells has him ranked (according to his board, he’s one of the top 7 players in the draft).

S
None

–no surprise.

CB
Prince Amukamura, Nebraska
Patrick Peterson, LSU

–really surprising considering Peterson is the favorite of many draftniks out there. That said I love Amukamura and will be shocked if he drops out of the top 10.

–Mallett is probably the most gifted QB in the class, but has some demons (true or exaggerated) that are killing him. I’ll use two Washington State QBs to describe him: on the high end he’s Drew Bledsoe, huge guy, huge arm, statue-esque, good guy. On the low end he’s Ryan Leaf, huge guy, huge arm, statue-esque, horsesass. Both Ponder and Locker are going to be drafted higher and most likely in the first round.RB
Ryan Williams, Virginia Tech
Daniel Thomas, Kansas State
Mikel LeShoure, Illinois

–I love Williams. He just seems instinctive and looks the part, although he wasn’t as productive as I would have expected just looking at him and his measureables (5’9 212 4.59 40) and he’s got low mileage on him as a redshirt sophomore, but it’s not about production in the NFL Draft, it’s about projection.

TE/FB
None

OTs
Derek Sherrod, Mississippi State
Jah Reid, UCF

–I’m surprised that Sherrod is not a first rounder given the buzz around the guy, but early second round makes a lot of sense too. As for Reid, he’s not a guy I’ve heard a lot about but he’s a monster at 6’7 327.

OGs
Danny Watkins, Baylor
Stefen Wisniewski, Penn State

–sure, although it seems Watkins will be a first rounder, I suppose it all depends on whether or not the run of QBs happens and all of the sudden someone like Colin Kaepernick winds up in the first round…(which could happen).

–I’m surprised to see Liuget here because he’s a guy that is being pimped as a mid-first rounder. I’ve also seen Austin’s name bandied about in the first round, specifically to Seattle (which would be a mistake). Paea has been a favorite of mine for awhile but I’m not surprised to find him with a second round grade.

OLB
Akeem Ayers, UCLA
Dontay Moch, Nevada
Justin Houston, Georgia

–here’s where it gets interesting… according to Parcells’ board, these are the last three draftable OLBs. Also, Houston is 270 lbs and he’s got him here as an OLB. Parcells loves giant OLBs apparently. Moch is a freakshow having run a 4.40 at nearly 250 lbs.

–this looks like a really nice grouping of DBs and I’d be surprised if Seattle didn’t want one of them–even the guy who is reportedly addicted to codeine, but I like a third-round guy a little better anyway.

– Marecic is one of two fullbacks on Parcells’ board and I’m a bit surprised that he rates him so highly. I like him as a player for sure, but third round just seems a bit early, but he is versatile and I would love to have him on my team. I guess I just contradicted myself.

OTs
Marcus Cannon, TCU
Gabe Carimi, Wisconsin
Orlando Franklin, Miami

–and we finally find Carimi, all the way down here in the third round. When I initially saw Parcells’ board, I thought that they made a mistake and left him off entirely because I didn’t see his name in the first round. This is pretty shocking to me and I wonder what he doesn’t like about him. It must be that he simply doesn’t value OTs very highly if they are not projected as LTs (which Carimi is not). Also, I may be missing a guy here between Carimi and Franklin but I’m not sure.

OGs
James Carpenter, Alabama
Will Rackley, Lehigh

–wow, a dude from Lehigh? He’s rated around this area if not higher by everyone so it makes sense, but man, how do these guys get missed out of high school?

–this is about right for Foster (I remember reading somewhere that he was a possible first rounder, to which I reply STFU, and I say that with all respect for Foster who is a helluva player. I’m surprised he’s got him listed as an ILB, he must be projecting him for a 34 defense.